Two unrelated but very rare forms of phonetic spelling seemingly for Hillman have been recorded. While seemingly unusual spellings, both sound like “Hillman” when spoken and can be shown to relate to the mainstream family name. A further complication is the surname Iljman from the Netherlands which could be related.
2.8.1 Ylman
Twenty one records were found in Family Search[1] for the surname Ylman from various data sources worldwide.
Four early records in Balcombe, Sussex, England recorded a baptism in 1609 and a marriage in 1611 in the same Ylman family of Jhon and Doritie Ylman, and their sons Jhon and William. This same location was later a significant Hillman location.
Another English record was the death of Elizabeth Ylman at Framfield, also in Sussex, in 1684.
Five passengers in one family (Klaas and Trietju Ylman, and their children Jantji, Dirkji and Klaas) arrived at Ellis Island, USA in 1892 from the Netherlands.
There are seven records for the name in Peru, for the period 1840-1903, in Callao, Lima, and Cajamarca further north.
There are a further one each for the name in Argentina and Venezuela.
The records in England are all quite early in the 17th C. The will of Mary Heaver, of Southover, near Lewes in Sussex, dated 24th March 1669 includes bequests to “Jeames Ylman, Thomas Ylman and William Ylman” ten shillings apiece, being her sister’s children[2].
Harvey Gem[3] refers to a letter to Wulfgeat, a thane, in 1006, at the town of “Ylmandun”. This is identified as the modern Ilmington, near Shipston-on-Stour, near Eynsham. We have the elements of Illman and Ylman, and close to the Ilmington Downs, previously known as “Ylman Dune”, the highest point in Warwickshire[4] – to all intents and purposes – a hill. Is this reference in any way linked to the land boundary references below?
Finally, there is a reference to the term “Ylman dune gemaere” in old legal documents relating to land ownership and boundaries in the Blackwell area of Tredington, Warwickshire in 1337[5]. The meaning of this is not yet apparent, however there would appear to be a small hill on the map illustrated, accompanied by the words above – a hill again. On satellite imagery the location is marked by an amazing accumulation of rocks.
2.8.2 Hilghman
An unusual phonetic rendition of the name, only recorded in the USA, so likely to be a recent evolution.
Harry T. Hilghman[6], was born in 1896 and died in 1975, buried in Hebron, Wicomico, Maryland.
Ellen Hilghman, on re-entering the USA at Ellis Island, was recorded in 1955 as a resident of Pennsylvania[7].
In 2001 a thread by Paul Morris on genforum.genealogy[8] referred to the family as being from the eastern shore of Maryland, and Wicomico Somerset County, Maryland. The name was apparently pronounced Hillman, and spelled variously as Hilghman and Hillman in Presbyterian and Court records.
In the absence of further records, and the comment that Hilghman was used together with Hillman in formal records, it would seem this is a very localised and recent version.
Sources
[1] Family Search. Jun 2019. https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=75&query=%2Bsurname%3AYlman
[2] FamilySearch Film 1885870 Image 26-27, transcribed by Vyvyan Jones, May 2017.
[3] Gem, Harvey. 1912. An Anglo-Saxon Abbot Elfric of Eynsham. T & T Clark, Edinburgh. http://www.archive.org/stream/MN5145ucmf_4/MN5145ucmf_4_djvu.txt
[4] A guide to Ilmington. Mar 2009. http://www.information-britain.co.uk/county3/townguideIlmington/
[5] Hooke, Della. 1999. Warwickshire Anglo-Saxon Charter Bounds. Boydell & Brewer, Suffolk. Jan 2014. https://books.google.pt/books?id=wQk4WhsbQYkC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=ylman&source=bl&ots=pqR4SSJ_Em&sig=-dq0Bks2txTIiHuUiR4_Duc1_ms&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQrqXxy_PYAhVHJlAKHbVaBzU4MhDoAQgwMAI#v=onepage&q=ylman&f=false
[6] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154885505/harry-t-hilghman
[7] https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger
[8] http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi?hillman::370.html